Hypothermia
by kaysayyy
Summary: You can't save every child.


Christmas was both Jack's favorite and least favorite holiday. Sure, it was nice to have a himself mentioned in one line of a Christmas song and have a whole movie dedicated to him (that's highly inaccurate, must to Jack's disgust), but there's no one really for Jack to go to tell or brag about it. That was one of the biggest downsides to this holiday, no one for Jack to celebrate it with.

However Jack guessed that bringing a white Christmas to everyone on the Northern hemisphere had its perks. Mostly everyone appreciated his work, especially the children. They would cheer and holler whenever Jack's work would bring a snow day and you thought that was thanks enough for him.

Jack peered into one of the houses he was just passing by, there was a huge family inside all warm and cozy with each other while having their Christmas dinner. The father was cutting the turkey, the mother was passing her homemade salad around the table, and the uncle was telling one of his lame jokes that every would force themselves to laugh were all so friendly with each other and they looked like they enjoyed each other's company, it made him painfully jealous. Jack couldn't stand looking at the picture anymore, so he immediately took off.

Every household you passed had the same picture, and you just wanted to escape it all, Jack looked every to find some sort of tranquility to release yourself from the pain of being alone. That's when he found an isolated playground far off from the town Jack was passing through.

It looked harmless enough, the snow that was falling down made it look like a miniature wonderland and it seemed like no one had been to the playground in months, maybe even years. Jack scanned what was there and it looked like the usual playground you'd see everyday. The playground had a swing set, a slide, a tall make-believe fortress, the whole works. He figured this would be a nice place to stay for a while and walked over to the tube thing that most kids crawl through.

That's when Jack realize that the playground wasn't as isolated as you thought.

Inside of the tube was a girl who looked no older than 6 years old. She was bundled with a bunch of newspapers over her and she was wearing very thin clothes with no shoes or gloves on at all. Her face was as red as they could be and her feet and hands looked too purple and blue. She kept making unnatural cough noises in her sleep and would sometimes moan from pain. Jack knew what was wrong with her though, she had been out in the cold for too long and now her body was freezing over. He wondered though where her family could be? Wasn't there anyone for her to go to?

That's when Jack realized that there was a possibility that she was homeless and had nowhere to go to. She could've lived here in the playground and gotten food in the nearby forest. Jack wondered how long she lived like this and what pain and loneliness she has been through. Much how like what Jack went through. He had to do something, if she stayed out in the cold night any longer she would continue to freeze to death. Jack then figured that he would have to bring her to the nearest hospital for treatment but there was a problem. If he touches her, then he would only freeze her even more.

No, he had to save her, it was a risk he was willing to take. Jack knew that there had to be a way to control his body temperature. Jack carefully wrapped his arms around the young girl and picked her up gently. So far so good, now he had to fly as fast as possible to the nearest hospital. He called to the wind and it immediately responded by hoisting both of them into the air.

Jack remembered that the closest hospital was only ten to fifteen minutes from where they were and he figured that would be enough time to save the girl. However, she was painfully shivering in Jack's arms and he was starting to worry. Maybe he couldn't control it after all, what if she was dying in his arms right now. These thoughts only made Jack fly faster, but the cold harsh wind was only worsening the young girl's condition.

"I'm sorry, all I can do is keep you cold."

Finally, they both reached the hospital and Jack opened a window to where there was an empty room for the child. Jack placed the girl on the bed and examined her condition. Somehow she looked worse than before and her hands and feet were completely blue now. His heart was pounding now from the anxiety that he possibly only made her feel worse. He blew a gust of wind at the door to get the doctor's attention and they came running in to see the girl shivering violently on the bed. They all didn't know how she got there, but they started treatment on her right away. Jack watched helplessly at the window as they tried to warm up the girl.

It was only a few hours later when Jack returned to check on the girl. The heart monitor right next to her was beeping slowly and she looked close to being dead. Jack winced at the appearance and then two doctors came walking into the room.

"So, what do you think the chances are of her surviving." asked the younger of the two doctors.

The older one looked sadly at the girl and shook his head, "I'm sorry to say that it was only a miracle she made it through the night. So far most of her organs are beginning to fail after being near frozen for so long and we can only make her feel comfortable for the end."

The younger doctor sighed, "Does she have any parents? How could she have gotten in here anyway."

"Some nurses took on the research of finding who her parents are and found out that she could've been the child of the couple who died in that car crash a few months ago. I'm guessing everyone assumed she was dead as well and she tried to take care of herself. Such a terrible thing for a young girl like her to do. As for how she got here, maybe she walked in herself and none of us noticed or she could have a guardian angel. Who knows."

"At least now, she can finally reunite with them"

The older doctor nodded and they both left the room. Jack crawled through the window and walked over to the side of the bed. He placed his head in his hands and began to tear up. What had he done, he killed his girl. He tried to save her and now look at what happened. All he ever did was screw things up for everybody.

He carefully placed his hand on her hand and shook his head. "I'm sorry, so so sorry, I never meant for this. I was only-" but he choked under his sobs.

"Jack?"

Jack turned around to see a large man behind him wearing a bright red coat. It was North, but what was he doing here?

"Why are you here?" asked Jack.

"I came because it is my job to watch over the children of the world," replied North gesturing to the young girl, "But I see that you're doing it for me."

Jack scoffed at the last comment, "Yeah and I did one hell of a job just look."

North shook his head, "No Jack, you save her. You bring her to hospital and care for her. You protected her."

"Protected her? How? By making her freeze to death? By making myself think that just for once I could do something good without screwing things up?"

Again North shook his head and replied, "Jack you're the one who brought her here, before she was already freezing and sick and there was nothing we could've done to fix it. But you, you tried to fix it even if it was inevitable. Now look, she isn't alone. She's in a warmer and safer environment surrounded by people caring for her, all thanks to you. You saved her."

North was right, he was always right and there's was no way for Jack to argue with him. He turned over back the girl and grabbed her hand for one last time. "I'm sorry I couldn't make you feel better, but now you don't have to sleep in that cold tube. You can sleep peacefully." And with that Jack nodded towards North and flew off.

A few minutes later the doctors walked into the room to find that the girl had died, but she was smiling brightly. They found it odd considering when they left she had no emotion on her face when they had left the room.


End file.
